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One late summer evening, two copywriters sat down at their keyboards to craft sales letters for almost identical products. They were very much alike, these two copywriters. Both had years of experience writing every type of ad and were dynamos at selling to their core markets. Both writers were also dedicated students of direct response marketing and were up on the latest trends and techniques for making their clients (and themselves) ever larger profits. But while one writer spent an entire week on writing and edits, his leisure-loving colleague cranked his final draft out within hours of sitting down that first evening. And heres the capper. The ad that was written in mere hours buried the week-long effort by many multiples.
Why not? Because he knew the first few seconds the prospect was into the piece would have told him in no uncertain terms
CreativityNot!
Ill let you in on a little secret. As triumphant as Conroys ad was for The Journal, he didnt come up with the story of two young men any more than I did a tale of two copywriters.
As a matter of fact, he lifted the story line from another famous 20th Century ad man, Bruce Barton. Barton wrote a space ad in 1919 for his long time client, The Alexander Hamilton Institute, the premier self-help and business development entity of the early 20th Century. The headline for the ad was The Story of two men who fought in the Civil War which opened like this: From a certain little town in Massachusetts two men went to the Civil War. Each of them had enjoyed the same educational advantage, and so far as anyone could judge, their prospects for success were equally good. One man accumulated a fortune. The other spent his last years almost entirely dependent upon his children for support. If you look at Martin Conroys and Bruce Bartons openers side-by-side, its clear they were created from the same mold. But guess what? Just as Conroy was inspired by Bruce Barton Barton took his plot cue from a successful ad written the year before with what should now be familiar deck copy:
The story of two clerks in New York City who started together a few years ago, side by side, each earning $12 a week.
This 1918 ad sold the memory course du jour, the Roth Memory Course, and told the story of two clerks. The clerk with the memory went on to become the head of a giant publishing enterprise. The other became a petty bill collector. So much for creativity! The memory ad hails from the ad agency of Ruthrauff & Ryan, which was a veritable all star team of copywriters, including on staff at various times: John Caples, Maxwell Sackheim, Victor Schwab, Wilbur Ruthrauff and Lillian Eichler Watson of Book of Etiquette fame. We may never know who among these world-class writers actually wrote the ad. And it really doesnt matter. Thats because
And if you really want to get into story telling for copy, heres a great book to consider for your bookshelf. Its called 20 Master Plots And How To Build Them. If youre interested in what motivates middle aged men to watch movies like Rocky and The Karate Kid for the umpteenth time at 3:00 amor why young children are endlessly enchanted by Cinderella, youll find 20 master plots in here to get you going. Happy story telling!